Q&A
Impact of insufficient advisors and faculty on CUNY students
1:53:41
·
3 min
Jen Gaboury elaborates on the challenges students face due to insufficient faculty and advisors at CUNY. She describes how these shortages affect students' ability to enroll in necessary courses and receive timely advising.
- Students often struggle to get advising appointments before the start of the term, impacting their course selection
- Gaboury mentions granting appeals for course substitutions as an act of mercy for students nearing graduation
- She highlights issues with work-study programs and financial aid processing due to understaffing
Onyekachi Okeke
1:53:41
that You
Eric Dinowitz
1:53:41
don't have to whisper, but I we're full agreement.
Jen Gaboury
1:53:44
No.
1:53:45
Yeah.
1:53:45
I'd like the provost to hear me too.
1:53:47
So that we don't have enough faculty and we don't have enough advisors.
1:53:53
And that student's inability to get that class But more, that student's inability to map exactly what they need, like the testimony that we've heard is exactly the problem.
1:54:04
And I can tell you with someone who's sat granting appeals, right, that I have to say, oh, well, close enough.
1:54:11
Right when they're on the cusp of graduation as a kind of act of mercy.
1:54:15
And time and time again when I ask students, like, well, why did you take this class instead of that class when you're appealing it?
1:54:22
They say, Well, I couldn't I'd signed up to get an appointment with the advisor, but it was it was 3 weeks after the term started.
Eric Dinowitz
1:54:29
Mhmm.
Gale Brewer
1:54:29
And I
Jen Gaboury
1:54:29
had no ability to add or drop the class and know which class exactly fit the final 3 requirements that I needed.
1:54:37
And the map didn't necessarily tell me and which is a problem.
1:54:41
And by the way, peer to peer programs are great for some things, and they're not great for other things.
1:54:47
But meanwhile, at my college, We didn't hire about 400 work city students this year, and I actually think they should maybe sue CUNY, by the way.
1:54:58
Because we don't have enough financial aid staff to process their applications to become work steady.
1:55:06
Students and, like, use their financial aid.
Eric Dinowitz
1:55:11
I I just wanna go back to the training of certain requirements are there any requirements for faculty be to be trained or to receive any sort of you know, whether it's transfer, whether it's, you know, sexual harassment, training, Is there any requirement?
1:55:36
And in the same vein or is there any requirement for things like professional development hours that either adjunct or tenured professor or full time professors have to engage in?
Wendy Hensel
1:55:47
So we there are about 4
Jen Gaboury
1:55:50
trainings that we do, for example, in modules online, for example, on title 9 harassment issues or on, you know, don't open junk email that ransom the entire college's data system, right, something that has happened to hackers and attached to a We've had, you know, we have 4 required that's happened.
1:56:09
Right?
1:56:09
And then you had to remind college residents, please don't pay ransom to people that ransom your data.
1:56:17
So we have 4 required trainings that we are required to do and we get persistent emails reminding us near as we near the deadlines.
1:56:26
For people who are advisors and sign up to be advisors, you get a turkey sandwich when you show up at the training, but I'm not sure that necessarily anything happens to you if you don't go to the training that may or may not be offered by your dean's office.
1:56:42
And sometimes I know my dean's office has not necessarily offered any training.
1:56:46
And so whole cycles of advisers don't necessarily depart like, faculty advisors I don't necessarily get any of that training.
Eric Dinowitz
1:56:54
So it's I guess, miss, there's no no agreement between PSC and CUNY that there are You're saying there are some trainings.